Thread: Identifying yearling hinds

I shoot them all.

Fawns are obviously small even when seen on there own.

Yearlings will have fur covered nubs or spikes on their head if male. These will be similar size in body to mum so if you target hinds you will inevitably end up shooting spikers at some point which isn’t a bad thing.

As a generalisation:
Farm deer will usually be in groups depending on time of year.

Young stags will group together and will be obvious due to antlers. The big old boys usually isolate themselves.

Hinds will group up with their young. In heavily populated areas you could have mobs of dozens comprised of hinds, fawns and then also their yearlings or spikers still hanging around. This is a common sight when farm hunting and you can easily see body size difference.

At these times it’s easy to select the yearlings out.

At other times you will see pairs. This usually means a couple of dumb spikers or a hind and her yearling or fawn.

In all honesty bro shoot the hind, wait for the young to walk towards you in a circle wandering what’s going on and then take that one too.if it’s older then you get some prime meat, if it’s younger you just helped stem the deer population a little.You are harvesting it and not leaving it to suffer. You are also helping the farmer and sparing feed for his livestock.

Even on public land you will be doing the ecosystem a favour.

I suggest having a talk with the farmer and you likely hear that a dead deer is a good deer is their opinion.

You are in an enviable position to have access to such land so enjoy it.

Yesterday’s observations. Was up Leatham yesterday. Hinds and yearlings still seem to be hanging out together, hinds were noticeably bigger and rounder, don’t seem to have dropped yet. We’re at lower levels of hillside. Four stags seen, all at higher altitude, about 900-1100m, on open ridges. Two I was watching soon disappeared when a chopper flew down valley. Last night shooting two vineyards, hinds/yearlings came out shortly after dark. One had fawn at foot, will be tender eating I guess. Two stags didn’t come out till shortly after 3:30am so maybe they’re form bachelor groups. Dead now but. Wet, miserable night and today’s not much better, but at least it’s cooler.